Scripture and Tradition

Sermon on the Mount - Carl Henrich Bloch - 1877

Though many often argue about the proper role of both Scripture and tradition, the historical Church teaches that Scripture and tradition work hand in hand together, and cannot be separated.  The Church usually describes this as the coinherence of Scripture and tradition - they exist in essential relationship with each other, as innate components of the other.  Yet, at the same time, the Church has always insisted that tradition must submit to the final authority of Holy Scripture.

This view might surprise many Christians who either reject or belittle tradition out of a mistaken notion that sola scriptura (Scripture alone) means Scripture stripped from any churchly context of tradition.  It also may surprise many Catholic Christians who view tradition as a parallel, or even an independent source of authoritative teaching, or even as revelation.

The writer of Hebrews clarifies God speaks to us (reveals Himself) in the Old Testament, and now through

The Evangelist Matthew
Inspired by an Angel
Rembrandt (1661)

his Son, Jesus Christ, in the New Testament period.  (Hebrews 1:1-2.)  What Jesus taught and did, the apostles initially passed down orally as tradition, which they urged believers to hold to. (1 Corinthians 11:2.)  Eventually, they wrote down those traditions which became the New Testament, which together with the Old Testament, became the written word of God, all under the work and supervision of the Holy Spirit.  (2 Peter 1:20-21.)  Jesus affirms God's word is truth.  (John 17:17.)

The apostolic tradition in the New Testament constantly urges us to obey what Jesus commanded, out of our love for Him, especially to love one another.  (1 John 2:3-6; 3:11 & 23.)  The Church thus considers the New Testament authoritative, as well as the Old Testament as interpreted by the New Testament.  Scripture serves as the standard by which the Church adheres to in following the head of the Church, Jesus Christ.  (2 Timothy 3:16-17; Colossians 1:18.)

Christ Pantocrator - Mosaic in Hagia Sophi
(roughly around 1261)
Pantocrator means Almighty
IC represents the first and last letter of Jesus in Greek
XC represents the first and last letter of Christ in Greek

Tradition, when understood correctly, is the proper reflection of Holy Scripture under the illumination of the Holy Spirit, as well as the faithful transmission of the gospel message it contains from generation to generation under the power of the Holy Spirit.  The early Church, through the work of the Church Fathers, diligently worked through many issues it faced, and gave us a great body of teachings, summarized in certain creeds, especially the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed.  They helped to make explicit what was implicit in Scripture.  We would do well to heed and mine this great body of teaching for its treasures, as well as from all traditions of the Church grounded in Scripture and which helps us understand it better, as the Reformers did.

However, tradition can go wrong when it simply conveys what men, apart from Scripture, seek to impose on the Church.  In such cases, men, on their own, can render an inaccurate interpretation of Scripture, to further their purpose.  Jesus condemned traditions which contradicted the Scripture calling them "human traditions" or "the traditions of men."  (Mark 7:8)  This does not mean all tradition should be rejected, but that we should be careful to ground tradition in Scripture to help clarify Scripture, as Vatican II teaches (in Dei Verbum).

If we only study and follow our own tradition, the traditions of our own church, we will miss out on the vast richness the Holy Spirit provides believers in the various traditions of the various churches that are part of the one true Church with Christ as its head.  By studying and appreciating both Scripture and tradition, we will see and understand a richer view of the revelation of God - of what God is saying to us here and now.  Our understanding of what Scripture says should be informed by the wider fellowship of the community of faith, both in the past and in the present.  That is why the Church, the house of the living God, "is the pillar and bulwark of the truth."  (1 Timothy 3:15.)